[ecrea] Call for Chapters: Book on Mental Illness in Entertainment Media

Call for Chapters for Book Proposal

The editors are seeking chapter proposals for a collection of essays 
that examine positive, healthy, and accurate portrayals of mental 
illness in entertainment media.

**

*Proposed Title*: /Quieting the Madness: Entertainment Media’s Shift 
into More Accurate Depictions of Mental Illness/

**

*Editors*: Malynnda A. Johnson (Indiana State University) and 
Christopher J. Olson (University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee)

**

*Purpose*: From mad men to hysterical women to crazed villains, negative 
depictions of mental illness recur throughout entertainment media. Thus, 
unsurprisingly, a wealth of research has focused on the adverse aspects 
of these portrayals. Yet viewers and producers have recently started to 
push back against these inaccurate depictions and call for more accurate 
narratives. As a result, several movies and television shows have 
shifted how they frame mental illness. The past ten years or so have 
seen the emergence of more positive portrayals of characters living with 
depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, autism, and more. These 
portrayals have helped kick down the “madness” door and rebuild a safer 
space to talk about the realities of mental illness. Though far from 
perfect these modern narratives nevertheless offer opportunities for 
viewers living with mental illness to identify with characters that 
experience familiar struggles.

Given that research on mental illness in the media largely focuses on 
the negative depictions and their consequences, this volume seeks to 
shift the perspective to examining where these portrayals of mental 
illness succeed. The essays in this volume will identify and analyze the 
characters, viewpoints, and experiences of mental illness across a 
variety of popular media. The essays chosen for this collection will 
work together to examine the presence of these messages in entertainment 
media, including animated series, TV shows, comic books, movies, video 
games, and more. Each essay will consider how the different texts 
reflect, reinforce, and/or challenge sociocultural notions regarding 
mental illness. This collection is designed to reveal how these messages 
become disseminated across the entire media ecology with which any aged 
audience might engage.

**

*Proposed Structure*: This collection will consist of an introduction, a 
conclusion, and twelve essays exploring this topic across a range of media.

    Each essay should contain original scholarship on this topic.
    Essays should consider any media text that includes characters
    living with mental illness.
    Essays are encouraged to consider non-stereotypical and/or
    counter-stereotypical representations of mental illness.
    Essays should be 5000-6000 words long.

Essay proposals, to be considered for inclusion as a chapter, should 
contain a title, your name with your institution and title, and 
150-250-word abstract explaining the following:

    What media text you will analyze.
    What aspect of the media text you will analyze.
    The importance of this aspect.
    The potential conclusion drawn from your analysis.

The following presents information as to what will be covered in the 
introduction and conclusion chapters, as well as an example of an essay 
examining the media text /Sherlock Holmes/.

**

*_Sample Table of Contents_*

**

*Introduction: *

Tara Walker (PhD Candidate, University of Colorado Boulder), Malynnda 
Johnson (Assistant Professor, Indiana State University), and Christopher 
J. Olson (PhD Student, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee)

The introduction describes the prevalence of research on mental illness 
across the media landscape offering a historical overview of such 
representations. Setting the stage, the chapter will begin by 
chronicling the way that early perceptions and treatments of mental 
illnesses influenced depictions in the media. Moving along the timeline 
the chapter then discusses the continuity and change in film 
representations, and the common trope of equating mental illness with 
violence. Considering the variety of representations on television in 
the past 20 years, including sitcoms and reality shows focusing on 
mental health conditions such as hoarding, OCD, and addiction the 
chapter also illuminates the increasing commodification of these 
disorders via TV and film. The intro will consider the pros and cons of 
representations of mental illness presented in popular culture, with an 
emphasis on the importance of relatable positive representations. The 
intro will also include a brief discussion of the shift that the authors 
see occurring in how mental illness is portrayed in entertainment media 
and how scholars/critics are reacting to this shift, particularly in 
terms of how they cover/discuss this shift. Specifically discussing what 
happens when scholars, critics, and researchers include discussions of 
medical topics without labeling the conditions. Finally, the chapter 
will conclude with a preview of the chapters included in the anthology.

*Psychopath, Sociopath, or Autistic: Labeling and framing the brilliance 
of /Sherlock Holmes / *

Malynnda Johnson (Assistant Professor, Indiana State University)

Across books, movies, and television series Sherlock Holmes has given 
audiences multiple opportunities to attempt to understand and label the 
peculiar ways Sherlock behaves. In the newest television series on the 
BBC Sherlock himself uses the label of “high functioning sociopath” but 
is he really? This chapter analyzes the evidence of the three labels and 
calls to question the opportunities and challenges with framing a 
character as having a mental illness without ever providing a diagnosis.

*Conclusion*

Christopher J. Olson (PhD student, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee)

In the conclusion chapter, Christopher J. Olson will synthesize the 
ideas put forth in the various chapters to discuss the importance of 
understanding the significance of positive portrayals of mental illness 
in entertainment media. The conclusion will also consider how the growth 
of positive, healthy, and accurate portrayals of mental illness 
throughout popular culture seem to signal a similar shift in the culture 
at large, one that allows for more honest discussions of mental illness 
outside the context of popular culture. In addition, the chapter will 
also identify areas of the media ecology that have been understudied 
while also considering the impact of other messages not considered 
within the pages of this anthology. Finally, this conclusion will 
consider whose voices are still missing from the current discussion, and 
how researchers can work to amplify these voices. Thus, the conclusion 
will describe how the theories, concepts, and ideas put forth by the 
contributors work together to underscore the importance of positive 
depictions of mental illness, and it will propose how other avenues of 
study can build off the theoretical and analytical foundation laid with 
this volume.

If interested, please email the authors with your proposal by September 
1st, 2018 at:

Malynnda A. Johnson: (malynnda.johnson /at/ indstate.edu) 
<mailto:(malynnda.johnson /at/ indstate.edu)>

Christopher J. Olson: (olson429 /at/ uwm.edu) <mailto:(olson429 /at/ uwm.edu)>

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